


I'm Breathing, I'm Alive, but I'm Alone

by Anonymous



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: A LOT of Angst, Angst, Bad Decisions, Bittersweet Ending, Daisy dies :(, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort But Mostly Hurt, I stg I'd better be able to come back someday and mark this non-canon compliant, I swear I'm not always this Angsty, Nothing Graphic but Still Yikes, Sadness, Swearing, This is mostly abt Hazel & Daisy to be clear, Trauma, but we needed to spread the angst around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24030142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: During their thrilling adventure in Egypt, things go dramatically wrong, and the ultimate price is paid. Returning to England alone, Hazel must face the rest of her life without the person most important in the world to her.
Relationships: Bertie Wells & Daisy Wells, Bertie Wells & Hazel Wong, Daisy Wells & Hazel Wong
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: Anonymous





	I'm Breathing, I'm Alive, but I'm Alone

**Author's Note:**

> I unofficially dedicate this fic to the MMU Discord, who have been theorising about the new book in such a manner that as soon as I saw Robin Stevens "Write Your Own Ending" Prompt the first thing that jumped to my mind was Daisy's death. So erm yeah, that's this. Sorry. 
> 
> Please heed the rating, there's nothing graphic in here but still read with caution. If you think it's too low, just give me a shout and I'll fix it.

“Hazel! _Hazel!”_ Daisy rushed to where her best friend was tied, blistering her hands as she viciously pulled apart the coarse rope.

“Daisy!” Hazel cried, pushing the sheet off herself and jumping up to hug her friend, “Thank god you’re alright!”

“Naturally Watson,” Daisy said, her voice heavy with emotion, “Heroines -”

“ _Never die._ Yes, I well know that by now,” Hazel gave a slight laugh.

Daisy gave a slight gulp and nodded, “I… Yes, indeed Watson. Jolly good.”

“Well, we must get out of here right now!” Hazel exclaimed, breaking away from her friend’s embrace and trying to pull her away, “Come on, how did you get in? Secret passage I’m guessing. It was very ominous, Alexander discovered it, he’s in the next room, I hope you’ve sent George to get him. Anyways, we’d best -”

Daisy refused to move, “Hazel…” she breathed slowly, sounding utterly mournful, “if we both go, there will be nobody to free May. She will be killed.”

Hazel stopped, “What?!”

“It’s all part of their hideous ritual, and if we leave there’s no way we’ll be able to get help in time.”

“Oh my god,” Hazel gasped, feeling slightly sick, “what do we do?”

Taking a deep breath, Daisy squared her shoulders and looked at Hazel with determination, “I’ll stay here, appearing to be you, and all tied up, and when they arrive with May I’ll free her.”

“But what about you?”

“I’ll… Get away as well.”

Hazel took a deep breath. This had to be insane. There was no way she could _leave_ Daisy on a sacrifice altar! Even for the life of her sister. It wasn’t some _exchange_ , and she couldn’t allow it.

“This is my choice, Watson.” Daisy said gently, as if having read her mind.

Slowly, Hazel nodded, pushing away the overwhelming sadness. This was _Daisy_. It would be fine. It always was. “Well, I’m sure it will be alright.” She reasoned aloud, and stared at Daisy, eyes pleading, “Heroines never die, after all?”

Daisy gave a grin, only shaking slightly, “Exactly. About time you learned that.”

“And,” Hazel continued, pushing through all her doubts, “when this is all over, I’ll be there for you. I’ll help you with anything, and it will all be fine.”

“Of course,” Daisy gave her a determinedly strong smile, “now help me look like I’m tied up, will you?”

Hazel gulped and picked up the sheet, staring at her best friend with a haunted look. With a playful grin, Daisy grabbed the sheet and threw it over herself, “Oh, what fun this is. Reminds me of when Bertie and I used to play Dead Bodies back at Fallingford.” She gave a slightly shaking breath, “do tell him, that I rather appreciated it all. If I’m feeling in a particularly bad mood after this, that is.”

Nodding with tears in her eyes, staring at the tied up figure that could easily be her, Hazel said, “Of course.”

“And make sure you run as soon as May gets out to you. I can catch up, but you having a head start will throw them off, hopefully.”

“You will get away though.” Hazel tried to be sure through her tears, “It will all be fine. When this is over, I’ll never let you out of my sight again.”

“Naturally,” Daisy said, sounding slightly muffled from what might have been the sheet, “Detective Society forever.”

In full on tears, Hazel sobbed, “Detective Society forever.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine, don’t start up,.” Daisy said with false cheer, “Now get out, they’re going to be back at any minute.”

Hazel pulled herself together, and said, “Right, see you after it all then.”

“ _Go_ , Watson!”

Sensing the urgency, Hazel slipped away, out into the hallway. It was all going to be fine. It had to be.

* * *

After that, everything passed in a blur. She remembered getting May, running out as fast as she could. They had been chased a little, but Daisy seemed to hold the attackers up.

Daisy had not escaped.

Hazel had not learned this until later, though deep down, she knew. But it couldn’t be. This was _Daisy_. Daisy the heroine, who had never died and never would. She had tried to express this clearly to George and Alexander, who were both safe on shore, but they seemed doubtful. And scared. So scared.

It was a rush of chaos for several hours, days. A nightmare that would never end. The police were bustling around, the cult was caught and taken into custody. For some reason Uncle Felix was there.

That had been truly horrible. Watching as the information about the ordeal, about what had happened to Daisy, was relayed. Hazel couldn’t look at his grief and pure pain for more than a moment.

Logically, she knew that she should be hysterical, miserable, screaming with hurt. Bertie certainly had been, when somebody gave him a brief explanation of what happened over the phone. Hazel still hadn’t told him Daisy’s final words to him, she couldn’t. They weren’t her final words. All this was just a rush of nonsense, and in a minute Daisy would come rushing out, endlessly pleased about her ability to fake death.

Very few people could fake a death through fire.

Later, they learned that she had been poisoned first, a painless serum. She would have simply felt like she was drifting off, and then later… the Ritual would have happened.

Hazel hadn’t been allowed to see her body.

In complete honesty, she didn’t know if she would have been able to cope well at all, she was bad enough with the bodies of strangers. But it felt terrible, this disconnection.

Like Daisy wasn’t really gone. Because she wasn’t. This was just everyone making a big fuss over nothing, _a game_ , and they refused to let her in on it.

The thing was, Daisy had been Hazel’s everything, the center of her world. It was because of Daisy that she was a detective at all, Daisy was the reason she was friends with Kitty, Beanie, Lavinia, and even Alexander and George. If Daisy really was gone, Hazel would be utterly lost. She would have nobody. There was a whole family she’d made through Daisy, and she’d already lost the most important person in the universe, she couldn’t lose them too.

So she made a plan worthy of the Vice-President role she had earned, and slipped into the room where Daisy’s body had been temporarily laid to rest.

It was _horrific_ , and she wanted to scream. _That_ was not Daisy, that couldn’t be Daisy, it was a monstrous form, a shell. God, fuck, _shit_.

She stumbled out, collapsing on the floor outside in tears. It couldn’t be, it _couldn’t_ be.

“Hazel!” a distinctive alarmed American saw her curled up, choking and spluttering incoherently, “Are you all right?”

She glared at him, “Of course I’m not alright! There’s this _thing_ in there… A thing that they’re saying is Daisy. But,” she began to shake as tears spilled out of her eyes, “that can’t be Daisy. I left Daisy. I couldn’t have left her to that, I can’t have…”

“Oh Hazel,” Alexander pulled her into a hug, holding her tight while she sobbed relentlessly.

They remained like that for several minutes, maybe hours. It didn’t really matter now.

* * *

In true English fashion, the funeral was several weeks later. Almost all of Deepdean was there, in addition to family members, and those they’d met on cases that wished to pay their respects.

Daisy would have liked it, being the center of so much attention. At least, that was what Hazel tried to convince herself.

As she sat on a bench by some stupid generic church garden, she felt so alone. Was this how it would always be? Wandering around, a broken half?

Somebody came and sat on the bench, hesitantly nearby, and Hazel waited with reluctance to hear Alexander’s awkward reassurances. She loved him, but it was the last thing she wanted right now.

“Squashy would have been well chuffed by all this fuss,” Bertie Wells said quietly, and Hazel, surprised, sharply turned to look at him.

He looked worse than she’d ever seen him before, thin and pale, with big bags under his eyes. Haunted. Lost. Alone. Like Hazel.

“Yes… I daresay she might have,” she responded unsurely, because what could she really say? The world was broken beyond repair, and nothing could ever fix that.

Bertie let out a sigh and looked directly ahead, at the lily flowers growing near a pathetic excuse for a pond. “She was the only family I really had left… the only family I’d ever really had, growing up. It was always the two of us… and I’d always try to protect her as much as I could, because she deserved it… deserved a chance at a good childhood. I just never thought that would be all she’d get.”

Hazel nodded, wanting to cry and scream, crush something, beg some higher entity for her life instead of Daisy’s, but she’d tried all that, and could not avoid the truth: Daisy was _gone_.

Daisy was gone and Hazel at least owed Bertie her final words to him.

“She said… when we were _there_ , she said it reminded her of a game you used to play. And that… that she appreciated it all.”

“...Oh.” Bartie responded, voice heavy.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the bubble of chatter from behind and the bubbling of the stream ahead.

“It’s good that you’re okay,” said Bertie quietly. “I don’t think any of us could have coped with losing you both.”

Hazel looked at him, touched yet surprised, “Me? But I’m not a part of your family, anyone can see that.”

“Please,” he rolled his eyes, “do you really think any of us would want to embrace mother but abandon you, simply because of blood? We’re your family too now, no matter what happens.”

Once, Hazel would have been aghast at herself, hugging boys in hidden gardens away from everybody else. But things had changed now. Most people could guess that there was no scandal of that sort with a boy like Bertie anyway.

It was nice to know, that even though Daisy was gone, and a part of her would always be missing, that she was not completely alone.

* * *

The Detective Society had solved their last case. There cannot be a Society without a President, and nobody could be the Detective Society President but Daisy. However, this did not mean Hazel, Kitty, Beanie, or Lavinia stopped being detectives. Far from it, trouble always managed to fall at their feet. There were many mysteries to be solved, and criminals to be caught.

Daisy and the Detective Society may have been officially gone, but that does not mean their spirit could not live on. Forever.

**Author's Note:**

> So, um, yeah. Sorry again. 
> 
> The title is owed to "Move On" from the We Are The Tigers Soundtrack, which is a very Henry/Verity song, but I couldn't resist using that one line.


End file.
